Posted on 03/10/2009 2:47:25 AM PDT by sushiman
And the title of his new album is ???
On B on B - Dylan’s poetry reaches its zenith on this album - no doubt helped along by some illegal substances - but still the words and the images are epic.
On Dylan’s politics. As we watch our country transformed into some unholy montage of George Orwell meets Lewis Carroll meets Franz Kafka, I repeatedly wondered “what would Dylan think?”. How would he put this whole picture together, and deal with its insanity?
If he’s gotten into the Kool-aid line along with the rest of the Hollywood and music crowd, then that’s a pretty sad statement.
If what they said about him in the 60s is still true, and I have no reason to think it has changed he is pretty indifferent. The protest songs weren’t coming from any deeply held beliefs as much as wanting to be like his hero Woody Guthrie. Once he grew out of that he never returned to that kind of music, and he was never at the protests with the other folkies.
I would imagine that he remains indifferent on most political issues. Or he is for the most part at least too smart to really push his politics on anyone. I still remember Jann Wenner’s interview with Bob from a few years back. Wenner wanted him to say something for lefty politics and he wouldn’t. The most clear one was about global warming and Bob replied he didn’t know about that it was cold as hell where he was.
Yes Dylan wanted to follow in his hero’s footsteps (Guthrie) and yes he tended to steer clear of geopolitics. But I think you’d agree that his views on civil rights were heartfelt, and not in the least indifferent made up. There are pictures of him in the south participating in civil rights events, and I think this was no mere posturing.
My previous comments had no small amount to do with current politics, but also went deeper than that. I wonder more generally how Dylan would see society as a whole today - sure the politics - but everything else that goes with it - the dot commies, the twiterers, the sex in the city, the obama cult, the american idol, the whole ball of wax. Much like he observed society in the 60’s. My hope would be that he saw the craziness and the contradictions in where we are now. My fear is that he doesn’t.
I’m still in the dark, what did he say and how do we know what his politics are?
Guess you have to follow the posted link.
“Guess you have to follow the posted link.”
I did that is why I asked the question.
” No one was expecting Bob Dylan to say a thing during his two-plus hour concert last night at Northrop Auditorium. For years, Dylan has been known to keep to himself during shows, often only speaking between songs once in order to introduce his band members. But last night, after a lengthy break between his regular set and his encore which I can only imagine was spent discovering that Barack Obama had won the election, Dylan returned to the stage to play “Like a Rolling Stone” and then turned to the audience and spoke.
“I was born in 1941,” he said, a wavering sentimentality in his scratchy voice. “That was the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I’ve been living in darkness ever since. It looks like things are going to change now.”
He turned back to his keyboard and led the band in an almost unrecognizable rendition of “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Throughout most of the set, Dylan opted to keep his voice low and sparse as he half-sang, half-coughed the words into the microphone, but at the end of “Blowin’ in the Wind” he strained his voice to hit the high register of the original melody and held onto the words in the chorus as long as he could. When his voice couldn’t bear any more, he picked up his harmonica and practically skipped to the center of the stage. Even from my seat in the balcony it was obvious that Dylan was excited, and it only served to further ignite the fired-up crowd. “
What does that tell you ?
““I was born in 1941,” he said, a wavering sentimentality in his scratchy voice. “That was the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I’ve been living in darkness ever since. It looks like things are going to change now.””
Thats it? It tells me nothing.
Here are some pieces from a WeeklyStandard article on Bob Dylan, it is a little more thorough than what you posted.
“In an interview several months later with Edna Gundersen in USA Today, Dylan was asked about the absence of any song about the current (Iraq) war on his own latest album, Modern Times. “Didn’t Neil Young do that?” he jokes . . . “What’s funny about the Neil record, when I heard ‘Let’s Impeach the President,’ I thought it was something old that had been lying around. I said, ‘That’s crazy, he’s doing a song about Clinton?’”
“And indeed, any scrutiny of the record would show that he has never endorsed a political candidate (although some political candidates have endorsed him). The closest he has ever come would be the statement in his memoir, Chronicles, that his “favorite politician” circa 1961 was Barry Goldwater.”
“Consider also: Dylan never spoke out against the Vietnam war in the 1960s. Not once. It was not for want of being asked. At a 1965 press conference in San Francisco he was asked if he would be participating in an anti-war protest later that day. He replied, “No, I’ll be busy tonight.” The tape shows that he was all but laughing while he said it.”
“Despite the heat he took, he backed down not one bit. In an interview in Sing Out! magazine in 1968, Dylan was pressed on how any artist could be silent in the face of the war. Dylan talked about a painter friend of his who was in favor of the war, and said that he “could comprehend him.” Pressed further on how he could possibly share any values with such a person, Dylan responded: “I’ve known him a long time, he’s a gentleman and I admire him . . . Anyway, how do you know that I’m not, as you say, for the war?
The topic was dropped there.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=12727&R=11621B2BC
You oughta get together with the dude on the Van Morrison thread who asserts that the Beatles had no musical influence on anyone whatsoever, and the two of youze can concoct a new conspiracy theory.
Let’s forget the past for a second . I am well aware of what he has said and done then . His short speech to the crowd , surely knowing that Obama had won , is unprecedented . What he said is as close to old Bobby would go in saying he was pleased about the victory . How would you translate it ???
The past ? OK- June of last year :
The folk rock icon tells The Times he has become disillusioned about the state of America and feels Obama offers the country hope.
Dylan states, “Right now America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralising. You can’t expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor.
“But we’ve got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up. Barack Obama. He’s redefining what a politician is, so we’ll have to see how things play out.
“Am I hopeful? Yes, I’m hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.”
Add it all up and what do you conclude ?
I don’t conclude anything about Dylan from that stuff, people more involved than you have been trying to pigeon the hole the man for half a century.
Did he apply to you for a security clearance or something and it rests on whether you can devine whether he voted Democrat or Republican this last election, you seem obsessed with some kind of a purity test for the guy.
By the way that weeklystandard story isn’t even three years old yet.
Look - there have been a lot of Freepers besides myself that were/are wondering about Dylan and Obama . From what I read I concluded that IF he voted he did so for Obama . IMO a reasonable assumption given what he has said . That’s all .
I heard he’s working on a new album kind of along the same theme:
“All We’re Gonna Be Left With is Change”
Voting democrat in 2008 along with most other people seems reasonable for someone. It would be a huge thing for a known conservative or a freeper to do it, but voting with the 53% during a presidential election is not a deal breaker for someone who’s politics have been a secret for his 68 years and indicates that he is an independent that goes both ways (and is a musician).
We don’t know how he voted but it isn’t a big deal, your vanity post states that you have proof that solves a 50 year mystery, I just haven’t seen the “proof”.
The whole witch hunt seems weird to me, I like that he pretty much plays it down the middle but I never require a purity test from him.
Very cool video. Last night I put on my list to do - Break out Slow Train Coming CD for a listen (When You Gonna Wake Up being my focus)
Thanks for the jumpstart.
I still like Dylan. I don’t care much about the political views of artists I like. If I did, I would be able to see few movies, read very few books, and listen to maybe a dozen punk bands. Life’s too short.
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